<p>I will be entering the Faculty of Arts next year. I have emailed the First-Year Office and New Student Advising with my question - neither of their answers offered much clarification for me. So I'll try here! :)
In my last two years of high school, I have taken enough APs (and anticipate scoring highly enough) to definitely grant me U1 status. However, this will not be confirmed by McGill until the end of July at the earliest, when AP scores are released. Now that course registration is open, do I register for U0 courses, even though I am certain I will be U1? Minerva won't even let me register for some 200 courses anyway, saying they're limited to students in the program that I plan on entering. Obviously I can't declare my major until I obtain U1 status, which won't be until late July..
I have heard that you're meant to register for U0 courses and then, once you obtain U1 status, you can declare your major and switch to U1 courses - is this true? My primary concern with this is courses filling up, etc. After U1 status has been confirmed, will they allow you to go into classes you need for your major, even if they are full? </p>
<p>I really appreciate any help or advice, because it will definitely be more useful than the little information McGill admin has provided. Thank you! :)</p>
<p>If courses are full, you won’t be able to get into them. If they’re open, you can keep changing up until the end of the add-drop period in mid-September. Get yourself on the waitlists if you can.</p>
<p>If you declared APs upon registration, it’s surprising to me that you don’t already have U1 status on Minerva. I’m an IB student and I’m listed as U1, although because of the way they distribute IB credits, I probably won’t actually be U1 until the winter semester. That’s confusing and a whole other story though. What I got from several emails to advisers is that as a U1, you can take any 200-level you want provided it’s not restricted to certain majors/minors, and that you’ve completed any necessary prerequisites or equivalent. The problem with that is that they don’t really tell you which prerequisites they’re giving you credit in… just “6 credits in History 1XX” or the like, at least for me. </p>
<p>Because of that, I’d recommend trying to get into whatever you can during the add-drop period, when hopefully things will open up a little, and then trying to sign up for whatever else you may need/want in the winter term, once it’s more clear what exactly you have the prerequisites for. For now, maybe sign up for courses approved for freshmen (and whatever else you can get into that’s available right now), but be careful to make sure they’re not things you’ve got credit for- I found that a lot of the freshman-approved courses in history said that students who had already taken certain courses weren’t eligible, presumably the courses IB/AP students would be getting exemptions from. So be wary of that.</p>
<p>I just went for a schedule that would work out within the requirements for my degree, but stayed within the freshman course list because I didn’t know where my credits would let me go. Once I find out what credit I’ve actually got, I’ll probably try to change my winter a little if I can. But definitely sign up for a full schedule, just in case. It’s pretty hard to arrange a U1 schedule when all of last year’s U0s have already filled a lot of courses, not to mention Quebec students, but make sure you have something because it’s better than wasting a semester or year if your desired courses don’t open up.</p>
<p>I was offered the opportunity to declare my major upon registration, so I’d double-check whether you can. It seems weird that you can declare before they even accept you but you can’t declare as an accepted U0.</p>
<p>From what I was told, register for U0 and then once you get credit, just drop and add new courses. Supposedly, advising is supposed to get you a place in required courses even if they’re full</p>